the good with the bad

after my last post, i thought it was worth acknowledging that there are some wonderful things happening in our last days in montreal. for four days before we left for renton to do some house hunting, we enjoyed the company of our friend m, who was visiting from boston where she is doing a research project at mit. her visit is a reminder to us of God's faithfulness. we met m last year, when she was studying at mcgill for the year, and she quickly became a part of our family . when she went home to germany in april 2006, there were many tears. but we got to visit her in cambridge in april of this year, and she recently spent a long weekend with us — worshipping, eating, playing favourite board games, and even viewing the very disappointing pirates of the caribbean 3 (fwiw, the '3' on the end of any movie is a likely indicator of mediocrity — cf. spiderman 3). we'll get to see her at least one more time (God willing), on the road trip to washington.

on monday, my m (the one that's the mother of b and n — all of these initials get confusing sometimes!) had the privilege of baptizing e from singapore. what a joyous occasion! her family was there (visiting from singapore and hawaii for her graduation), and maybe 25-30 friends from the international bible discussion, interserve, impact church, and many other friends were able to join in the celebration. after a week of very warm days, e got baptized on the coldest, windiest day in recent memory; she and m looked chilly — but happy — as was the great throng on shore!